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Tuesday, February 17, 2015

I know Valentines has already pasted, but HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYONE! Even if you don't have a boyfriend or a husband, it can also be a day to love yourself and treat yourself to something sweet, something pretty. I'm excited to show you Etude House's latest collection, the Chocolate and some other new products even I was surprised to see in the box! When I saw their collection on Etude house korea's instagram, I freaked out so hard because I really wanted to get the Too Faced chocolate bar palette but all the colors I had something in my collection that could have been duped so it was no point. So When I saw Etude house's adorable and affordable collection, I was like..."I NEED EVERYTHING!"

If you don't know what Pink bird box is, it is not a box you can buy but a box kindly created by Etude House themselves which they send to hand selected bloggers to bring readers their latest collections. Sadly you can not buy these boxes, but I will leave links to sites I trust online which you can get these products :), with affordable worldwide shipping of course!

The funny little short story behind this box, I got this box literally when I was still half asleep. I had to run to the front door at 11:00 am when the mail man surprisingly was super early. After my usual mail lady who delivered all my memebox had been switched to a different route, the new mailman comes at 3:00 pm which is super inconvenient since that is the time I go to work, so I'd have to either wait til my parcel goes to the post office or even wait for the next day to pick it up. I almost fell down the stairs because I was so scared the mail man would leave. So I finally got to the door, still in my PJ's, hair worse then a bee hive and I still couldn't see clearly since my eye poop made my vision still fluzzy. At my front door I see a mail man and a little pink package. I was like oh nice! My very last Memebox (bittersweet moment), but I got upstairs and it was actually my pink bird box. I was still half asleep but I was screaming for joy silently hehe.

Sorry for the super long store, hope you don't mind. Hey at least this is just a blog post and you didn't have to go through a 7 min video hearing me babble right :)?

As always, this month's box came nice and secure with a huge plastic bubble, paper hay on the bottom and everything nice and bundled up in some bubble wrap. Cute pink tissue paper as always, just for that extra princessy touch hehe.

I really do love their little Etude house folders. It seriously makes me feel like it is a secret agent mission. This not so secret mission is their Chocolate collection, just in time for the month of love. Who doesn't love chocolate.

Give me chocolate...

"Because I'm a fat ass and I eat snacks all day, every day"

(I'm talking about me, please don't get offended...)

Bonjour Krystal :D~~

These were the photos they had on their instagram. Can you see my excitement! I wish they had like a chocolate shaped lip balm or something, in those luxe shaped fancy chocolates. Wow that would be amazing... ETUDE HOUSE I HAVE A NEW PRODUCT IDEA FOR YOU~

Nothing better then chocolate and make up.

The first product isEtude house Precious Mineral Moist any cushion, containing 15 g/ 0.52 oz. This is a spin off of their very popular Precious mineral any cushion but this one is a moist version which is definitely good for me since I have dry skin! I squealed of happiness when I saw this with my half opened eyes.

It comes in a usual BB cushion case, which you can actually pop out the cushion compact and pop in another one in. Refills are easy to purchase and are even usually cheaper then getting the whole thing. They also have limited edition designs on compact which comes out occasionally in limited edition collections (ex: Cinderella collection, Minnie mouse collection, etc).

Like all cushion foundation/ BB creams, they come with a sticker seal to keep it nice and sanitized. Peel away!

If you haven't experienced what a BB cushion is, it is a BB cream which is soaked up in a sponge and you use the puff that is included in the compact. The puff is different then the usual sponge. The little sponge bubbles are super fine, almost like memory foam and doesn't absorb any of the products. All you do is just pat the puff onto the cushion and it will catch some of the BB/ foundation onto the puff and you pat it onto your face. This will give you a comfortable coverage that you can't really feel. Coverage depends on the product, this one gives light to medium and is definitely buildable without caking up.

I won't be doing a full review just yet since I haven't gotten to try it out long enough. But when I do, I will come back to it and do a full review :).

From my swatches above, you can see that the foundation gives a good solid medium coverage with two layers. If you look at the picture on the right, my veins are pretty much covered but still looks natural. Finish with the moist version is noticeably more of a dewy, moist looking finish which Koreans (and I!!) love. So far, I really would recommend this product. Thumbs up!

Here comes the most excited part of the box! This is the chocolate collection and we were given two of the three chocolate shadows and three out of the six colors available.

The first chocolate goodness are these chocolate shadows. HOW CUTE ARE THESE! Sadly these do not smell like chocolate, but they have a slight faint scent of floral. I really love their cardboard packaging and I really wish they would have incorporated it onto the eyeshadow compact. That would make it extra killer, but nonetheless I do like the sleek, hard clear plastic compact. It makes finding the colors easier when placed into a make up collection/ vanity. I might not be able to throw away the cardboard packaging, it is JUST TOO BEAUTIFUL!

The first shade we have is #3 Cacao fudge. The compact measures 6.1 cm length x 0.8 cm width and 4 cm in height. Each of these shadows contain 4.5 g/ 0.15 oz.

There is also English in the back with the full list of the ingredients because Etude house cares about you :D. Yes I'm a cheese ball, what can you do. Just ask my boyfriend haha.

Cacao fudge is a cool toned semi sweet chocolate brown that is a satin finish with fine golden shimmers, and the dipped happiness is a yellow gold shimmer. I'd say it is a color that I would add on top of another shadow to give that extra sparkle, or placed strategically onto the center of my lids, corner of my tear duct and below my tear duct to awake my tired eyes.

The shadows texture is slightly on the stiffer side but they do preform well, no fall out. But as you can see, the color pigmentation is a lot better with a primer (I use the Nars eyeshadow primer) as it stands out a lot better but they do look pretty good without a primer as well.

Cherry truffle is easily my favorite out of the two. This is a warmed tone milk chocolate brown shade, satin finish with the littlest and finest brick red shimmers and the dipped goodness is a peachy pink shade that is matte.

This shade texture is significantly more buttery the cacao fudge, and I'm guessing it has something to do with the finish of the two. The peachy pink shade on the bottom is the most buttery in texture, pretty much as buttery as Marc Jacob's eyeshadows. The pigmentation payoff of these are really good too as you can see in the picture above. With or without a primer, they pretty much look the same but with a primer, the color is a lot more vibrant and solid then without (without a doubt). This one is my favorite out of the two and I would really recommend you guys get this out :).

I would do an eye look but I still don't have the lighting down, so these promo pictures will have to do for now.

The second part of the chocolate collection are these gorgeous Chocolate nails nail polish. I love the font, they seriously got it pat down with packaging and font selection. It makes me feel like I'm in a chocolate store in the middle of Paris, with my simple outfit, dainty jewelry and watch, and my red lipstick. Shall I throw in a poodle while I'm at it HAHA. My fantasy gone wild.

The first shade is G #310 mint choco chip which is a true cool toned mint green shade with large bronze circle shaped glitters and fine bronze glitters. The two different shaped glitters really make the nail polish look like it is a mint chocolate drink from Starbucks, or those mint chocolate chip ice creams. This polish only needed one coat for the color to reach maximum opacity. I'd do two coats just to get extra glitter but one coat is good.

I have heard some people questioning why they would add a mint color into the Chocolate collection, but I think it is a nice contrast to all the brown shades.

They also had this photo on their instagram and as you can see, the mint is a good refreshing mix to the collection!

The second polish we got is P #313 Cherry ganache which is warm toned brown with a brick red undertone. Surprisingly I actually did like this color! I would have never thought to buy brown shades as nail polishes, but these made me rethink and make me be more adventurous. This polish needed two coats in my opinion to reach that solid brown shade without showing my nail.

The third shade is P #313 milk cocoa and it is a cold toned, chocolate milk brown. I like this brown over the cherry ganache since it matches better with my cold tone skin tone. This color only needed one coat as well.

Guess what the cherry on top for these polishes are? THEY SMELL LIKE CHOCOLATE AFTER BEING APPLIED. How awesome is that!!! The scent is more of a coffee chocolate mixture but nonetheless, IT SMELLS AWESOME~

Like I have said before in my December pink bird box post, Etude house nail polishes beats Essie, OPI and any other "professional" polishes in my opinion because:

1) very affordable with $2 price tag

2) Only need one coat to get the full color

3) dries quickly, about 3-5 minutes and it is rock solid

4) They have an array of colors, textures and shades to choose from

I don't ever mess around with nail polishes because they take so long to dry, and then I accidentally chip it and I'd have to start all over again. Or the polishes needs about two to three coats and I really don't have the patience to do that. I can paint my left nail fine, but if I need to use my left hand to paint my right hand.... all hell breaks loose. I might as well give up at that point. But Etude house polishes has changed the game for me. I will forever praise these to the heavens, they really are that good. Trust me!

I'm not that great with polish painting, but I hope these are passable. I'm skintone is MAC's NC25, yellow undertone just for reference.

The last product is their face blur. This product is kind of like a primer, kind of like a CC cream. Not sure really now to describe it, but it is suppose to brighten up the complexion without the heavy coverage and do a real light photoshop to make you look FLAWLESS *says it in a Beyonce voice*.

The cream is a milky and blends right into the skin no problem. It is ever so slightly tinted a baby pink tone but once blended into the skin, it is barely there. Hopefully you can see in my swatch where I boxed it but it really does brighten up the skin complexion. I'm impressed. Sadly there is not much in the foil package so I will have to use it sparely for my face. This product does have a strong powdery floral scent so if you are allergic to scent, you have been warned.

Everything in this box is perfection and I can't wait to experiment some more to do a full face of make up. There is nothing in this box that was off beat, everything is "fantastic baby" (TOP's voice KEKE, comment if you know that reference). And I'm not just saying that because Etude house sent me these to do reviews on, I really actually do enjoy these products. If I didn't, I wouldn't go through all the trouble to take photos, make sure the lighting is right, then edit them.

These don't seem to be on the Etude house global website just yet, but you can find them at testerkorea. Best part about the site is that they ship internationally and their shipping rates are unbeatable. I bought ten etude house play 101 pencils and 2 holika holika jewel liners and the shipping was still just $4.50 to Canada. And if you sign up for an account (which you are going to have to anyways), you get 30% off on their "brand sale" section which is pretty much like 80% of the store haha. Go and check it out! If not, here is the link to Etude house globalwebsite just in case they are finally added onto their website after I have posted this blog post.

Which products are you guys interested in? Are you into chocolate hehe. Leave me a message down below. Btw, I love me some long comments since I love to hear other people's opinions and stories :). Don't be shy!

See you guys next time, thanks for stopping by!

*Disclaimer: These products were all sent to me by Etude House Korea for picture taking and reviewing on my blog. I was not given compensation of any sort to leave a positive opinion. These are all my honest opinions*